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20110528

Alzheimer sufferer’s death in cell still not investigated

James Brown, a confused old Afrikaner man, had wandered into a supermarket in Kriel and ate a chocolate bar. A furious crowd had police arrest him, police pepper-sprayed the old Alzheimer sufferer - and dumped him in a police cell by himself. Four hours later, he was dead with a gaping fresh wound to the back of his head. Nobody has ever been charged…

deniseryan@mweb.co.za sent around an internet petition, demanding an investigation into the deeply mysterious death of impoverished old-age pensioner James Brown, 98, locked up alone in a cell of the Kriel police station. Does anyone know whether this case has been investigated and the police-officers responsible for this man’s death in a police cell, have ever been investigated?

The TV programme Third Degree, broadcast by ETV in South Africa, showed these pictures of the late Mr James Brown, a 98-year-old Afrikaner Alzheimer sufferer. The confused old man was arrested at the Shoprite supermarket in Kriel in April 2009 – for ‘taking a chocolate bar without paying for it’.

Denise Ryan wrote: “The old man was assaulted, beaten and sprayed with pepper spray by the police officers who arrested him without any probable course for their behavior towards him – the old man did not resist arrest and the police officers were never in any danger from him at any stage. This old man did not know he was doing anything wrong because he was an Alzheimer’s sufferer – his doctor said his physical health was good, but he did suffer from Alzheimer. “

After his arrest, his civil rights were also violated because he had nobody to assist him and his right to a phone call was not presented to him otherwise he could have been assisted by a family member or attorney.

“He died within four hours of custody at the Kriel police station. This is what he looked like after four hours in a police cell – alone,” she wrote.

Relatives questioned the reason for the (clearly fresh) fatal head wound to the back of his head because the footage on the CCTV showed that he had not had any injuries at all upon his arrival at the Shoprite in Kriel.

Armed-robbery suspect Willie Moses Khoza got appointment as police-officer while his trial was still serving in court…

Rapport newspaper – July 9 2006 -- In 1999, Willie Moses Khoza, then 38, was arrested by the murder-and-robbery-squad in Pretoria for carrying out an armed robbery at the Waltloo-testing station. He was released on bail. Later on he pleaded guilty and his trial was seperated from co-accused’s.

At the time of the robbery, Khoza was a lockmaker living in Eersterust when he allegedly participated in an armed robbery with Aubrey Swarts and another man on 22 January 1999 and robbed R44,624 in cash. The case against Khoza and Swarts dragged on after Khoza admitted guilt and his case was seperated from the others. The docket then disappeared. A copy of the docket was drawn up and Khoza and Swarts appeared in the regional court – this time denying all guilt. The court heard that some of the robbed cash was found on him when he was arrested.

Yet while this case was dragging on, it was also revealed that Khoza meanwhile was appointed as a police-officer ‘as a fulltime member of the SAPS Pretoria police band.” The police claimed that he ‘was a musician and not a fully operational police member responsible for combatting crime,’ explained inspector Amanda Mosiane.

“But what about his pending court case for armed robbery, for which he had already pleaded guilty once before?’ Beeld journalist Sonja Carstens asked her: … “That’s won’t necessarily play a role in his work for the SAPF as a musician,’ Mosiane replied…

Khoza was actually at the police-training college when he was issued with a summons for using the police-college facilities to practice and store their musical instruments, wrote Carstens.

Outraged police members told Rapport that it ‘was ridiculous that suspected armed robbers who are in the middle of their trial, can be admitted to the police force. Where will this end? For members of the public, Khoza would not merely be seen as a musician at the police band. For the public, Khosa is a suspected armed robber who managed to get an appointment as a police officer in the middle of his armed-robbery trial.’

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '